1st Annual Armchair Audies Listener’s Choice Awards

Last year I did a lot of raging against the Audiobook of the Year machine. While on one level I understood that this Audie award was based on marketing and sales figures, I could not let go of what I feel the winner of the Audiobook of the Year Award should signify: an audiobook and a performance that is the epitome of why audiobooks are so special to all of us. It should be an audiobook that would provide a new listener with that “I get it!” moment that leaves them wanting more.

I decided not to hold my breath waiting for the APA to come around to my way of thinking. Instead, through the Armchair Audies, I’ve created the 1st Annual Listener’s Choice Award. With this award, we hope to recognize the best audiobook of 2013 as determined by audiobook fans everywhere (with internet access). This award will have no where near the prestige of an Audie Award, but through it we want to highlight the audiobook title and narrator(s) who made the 2013 year in audiobooks special. We’ll let the publishers and the rest of the industry worry about marketing plans and sales figures. We know what really goes into the BEST audiobook experiences.

Voters are asked to provide the title, narrator(s), and a description of why voted the way that they did. We’ll publish some of those reasons on the Armchair Audies site when we announce the winner. If we have a way to do it, we will even be sending the winning narrator(s) an official certificate.

Votes can be cast until noon on Tuesday, May 27th. Unlike some public elections, vote early and vote often is not something we want to embrace. Please keep to one vote per person. If the Armchair Audies team feels that the ballot box is being stuffed, suspicious votes will not be counted.